Smooth Criminal
by The Mystery Squeezit
Summary: Chapter Five is up! Bowser sends an assassin to murder various citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom and frame Mario for the crimes. (INCOMPLETE)
1. The First Killings

**Smooth Criminal**  
**Written By: **The Mystery Squeezit  
**Chapter 1:** The First Murders  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the original characters in this fanfic.  
  
A masked mushroom man bowed before a large koopa on the throne. "King Bowser," He adressed the King Koopa, "I am ----- ( I blocked out the name. If I didn't, it wouldn't be much of a mystery now would it?) the master assassin Toad; you wrote out a letter calling me here."  
  
"Yes I did," Bowser grumbled, "and I have a hard task for you and I am willing to pay hundreds of gold coins for it."  
  
"Name it!" The assassin mushroom man said narrowing his eyes at Bowser. He didn't particularly trust the King of Koopas.  
  
"Well," The monstrous koopa said grinning, "I want you to go out and kill some random citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. Toads, Yoshis, Paratroopas, whatever the hell you can find. Then I want you to frame Mario for these crimes."  
  
The assassin thought for a moment; this was not an easy task why didn't Bowser just have him kill Mario? Wouldn't that have been easier?  
  
Bowser noticed the assassin's pondering and shouted so loud it made the throne room shake," IF YOU REFUSE I'LL KILL YOU RIGHT WHERE YOU STAND! EITHER FRAME MARIO OR DIE NOW! IT'S YOUR CHOICE! CHOOSE NOW OR I'LL CHOOSE FOR YOU!"  
  
"Fine then," the assassin said turning around and heading to exit the throne room. "I accept, but don't expect Mario to be in jail by tomorrow." With those final words, he left room.  
  
A young mushroom child skipped around the backyard of his home. The sun shone brightly around Toad Town; not a cloud in the blue sky. The father smiled at his young son, nothing would interrupt this peaceful moment, or so they thought.  
  
A shadow fell over the mushroom boy. He looked up expecting to see a cloud blocking out the sun but he did not. The thing he saw was much scarier than that. A mushroom man towering above the boy held a spear upright preparing to plunge the evil weapon into the boy's heart.  
  
It took the shocked fungi child a moment to react. "Daddy! Daddy!" The boy screamed in terror rushing towards his father. The father's child looked up from his newspaper, then in complete foolish madness he ran up to the assassin.  
  
"Damn it get out of here!" He assassin yelled at the child's father.  
  
The father was scared but did not show it, instead he pulled out a pocket knife. "Get out of here you filthy murder! I'll use this! I swear to the stars, I will."  
  
The assassin laughed an evil laugh then unexpectedly drove the spear butt into the mushroom man's stomach.  
  
The mushroom man doubled over in pain clutching his stomach. He closed his eyes trying to block out the pain, but it was to harsh.  
  
The masked assassin didn't stop there he grabbed the mushroom man by the neck and slammed him into a nearby tree. The assassin then slowly closed his grip on the mushroom man's neck. The mushroom man had finally stopped struggling, he was dead. The assassin dropped the crumpled figure to the ground. He then took a red piece of fabric and dropped it at the seen of the murder. He turned towards the boy.  
  
The boy gasped in horror. He knew he was next. He then turned and ran into the house spurred on by his own terror.  
  
Tearing after him the mushroom man picked up the spear and the pocket knife. He followed the helpless child mercilessly, until he had corned him.  
  
The child turned around. He knew this was the end, tears formed in his black eyes as he looked up at his tormentor. He sobbed out his final words, "P-p- please Mr. Mushroom Man Sir, I-I-I didn't do anything." With that he broke down into tears.  
  
The assasin looked down at the crying child. Was he actually feeling sorry for the young boy. He quickly waved the thought of as he took out the pocket knife.  
  
He carved into the poor boy's back spelling out the name _Mario_. He then left the boy to bleed to death. 


	2. Investigations

**Smooth Criminal**  
**Written By: **The Mystery Squeezit

**Chapter 2: Investigations**  
  
Yellow caution tape was wound around the victims' house creating a baracade, blocking it off from the rest of Toad Town. But even with officers guarding every coner of the scene it was still the place where most of the Mushroom Kingdom's citizens' attention had been diverted to since 11:00 PM; when the wife had discovered the body of her murdered husband and son.  
  
A professional detective, along with Mario and Luigi, entered the darkened house with a flashlight, scanning the premises for any clues.  
  
"Look over there!" M. Shroom, one of the detectives whispered, pointing to the mangled body of the Fungi child. "It's the little boy who was murdered."  
  
And sure enough, the corpse lay in the deserted corridor of the house, lying face-down in a pool of blood. The detective and the Italian brothers headed over to the bloody heap on the floor to identify the body. Kneeling over it, M. Shroom asked Mario and Luigi, "Do you recognize him from anywhere? The victim's mother was to upset to give away any names."  
  
Mario's eyes brimmed with tears as he remembered the little Toad. "It's Tiny Toad, I know him from my last adventure." He wiped away a tear. "He used to always hero-worship me. He never could make up his mind what he wanted to be."  
  
Luigi looked up. "Are you sure it's him?"  
  
"Positive."  
  
"Well we can never be to sure of anything." M. Shroom said standing up, and taking out a body bag. "We'll get this in the car along with his father's body and take both of them down to the morgue. We'll do some DNA testing to get the exact identities. You're probably right though, Mario. The Mushroom Elementry principal said that Tiny Toad wasn't in class yesterday." M. Shroom took the body bag with the Fungi child's body in it and headed outside.  
  
That morning the Koopa Brothers sat in their fortress reading that day's edition of "The Mushroom Kingdom Times". On the cover was a picture of the crime scene practically wrapped in bright yellow caution tape along with the headline, "_Two Toad Town Citizens Found Murdered In Home_".  
  
Red Ninjakoopa who was reading the cover at the time, spat his orange juice across the table in surprise. As far as he knew, _no one_ in the Mushroom Kingdom had ever been murdered. "Hey y'guys!" He called to his three brothers. "Look at today's cover story! Ya won't believe it!"  
  
"Mario's going t' jail?" Yellow Ninjakoopa grumbled sarcastically, angry to be awakened at such an early hour.  
  
"No you moron!" Red shouted. "Two people in Toad Town were murdered!"  
  
"Yer kiddin', right?" Black asked in astonishment, immediately awakened.  
  
"No! I'm serious, look!" Red held up the paper to his brothers' faces.  
  
"Let me see that thing!" Green demanded, snatching the paper from his brother's grasp and scanning over the article. "Whoa! He ain't kidding!"  
  
"Told ya!" Red grinned at his brothers who just gaped at the article in disbelief.  
  
"Y'sure this isn't that paparazzi trash?" Yellow inquired suspiciously.  
  
"That's no paparazzi newspaper. It's the Mushroom Kingdom Times. They've never lied about a story." Red said.  
  
"I'm going to check the news." Green said turning on the television and flipping through the channels until he reaches the _'The Mushroom Kingdom News Channel'_.  
  
A female toad reporter appeared on the screen. "Two Toads were found murdered at about 11 PM last night in their home. The bodies have been idenified as Tiny Toad, age 7, and his father John Toad, age 30. This is the first murder in the Mushroom Kingdom's history. It-"   
  
At that point Red turned off the television. "Now d'ya believe me? This murderer must be working for Bowser! This jack ass murderer is making us look bad! Bowser's not going to use us in world domination anymore!"  
  
"Well what are we gonna do about it, Red?" Yellow asked. "If we did anything he'd probably kill us too."  
  
Red was still not convinced, "That murderer will pay guys. Believe me, that bastard will pay."  
  
At the Toad Town Police Office, detectives worked day and night to put together clues to get a suspect. Right now the detectives had no suspects and only two clues: a piece of red fabric and an indecipherable name or word carved into the back of Tiny Toad's back.   
  
M. Shroom who worked with his brother, Doctor S. Shroom, were getting nowhere with the word sliced in the fungi child's skin.  
  
"It seems to me it was just a series of stabs." S. Shroom said to his brother. "Are you sure your not just imagining a message there?"  
  
The detective stared at his doctor brother, "I'm sure there was some kind of a name or word there Sam."  
  
Sam Shroom sighed and covered the boy's body with a white sheet. "We'll get back to this tomorrow Mark, let's just work on that fabric right now."  
  
The two brothers entered the room to find scientist, Professor Fungus running test on the fabric. Mark Shroom cleared his throat loudly, causing the scientist to turn around. "Professor, do you have any leads from the fabric clue?"  
  
Professor Fungus sighed, "Well, the fabric is 100% cotton, and the poilce said the victims were not wearing red, one was wearing blue, the other green. But it does sort of look like the fabric from Mario's red shirt and-"  
  
The professor was abruptly cut off by Mark. "Are you suspecting Mario?"  
  
The Professor rubbed at his tired eyes and said. "Well it does match the same exact fabric on Mario's shirt, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions. Tomorrow I'll go down to Mario and Luigi's house and ask some questions. Do you want to come?"  
  
Sam nodded, "We'll come, but I highly doubt it was Mario."


	3. The Fall of a Leader

Smooth Ciminal  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters, Nintendo does! I only own the story! Don't hurt me! *Cowers in corner*  
****  
Chapter 3: The Fall of a Leader  
  
Red Ninjakoopa chopped away at the thick vegetation in Forever Forest using a sharpened machete. It had been hours since he had begun searching for the murderer; and he had found nothing.  
  
"This is hopeless!" Red muttered to himself, flicking away a Forest Fuzzy with his machete. He then heard a whisper in the bushes to his right. "Show yourself!" Red commanded, sounding more brave then he felt.  
  
He then heared a hiss among the bushes. "Go away Sssssily koopa."  
  
Red dashed over to the location of the hiss. Among arival he saw a huge Piranha Plant. It stood about 10 feet high and had a gold crown on it's head that was studded with beautiful stones.  
  
The giant plant spoke again. "Sssssso it's s'you who have been hacking up my foressst with that weapon! I am King Piranha! Ruler of thissss foressst!"  
  
Red practically got a shower of spit as the King Piranha Plant spoke. "What do you mean YOUR forest?! It belongs to the boos!"  
  
The evil plant laughed. "Not any more it's not! I ate any boos that dare oposssse me! So they ssssurrendered and I became King!"  
  
"Well I could care less about the boos! Have you seen any suspicious looking...AHHHHH!"  
  
Without warning the huge plant bit into Red's shell. The plant's jaws worked like two giant saws tearing away at his shell and piercing his flesh. Red desperately grabbed the machete he was holding and slashed away at the side of the plants head. In shock the plant dropped Red and doubled over screaming.  
  
The Piranha Plant roared in agony as green blood oozed from a deep cut ranging from the corner of it's mouth to the beginning of it's stem. Red took this opportunity and drove the machete deep into the roof of the King Piranha Plant's mouth. The King Plant was dead before he hit the ground. Walking up to the dead plant; Red removed the machete (which was now dripping with green blood and saliva) from the plants mouth and took it's crown, placing it upon his own head. Turning away from the gruesome scene, Red continued his journey in finding the murderer.  
***  
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!  
  
Mario got up from the table where he was enjoying breakfast to see who had come to visit at such an early hour. Upon opening the door, he saw Professor Fungi, Sam Shroom, and Mark Shroom standing there.  
  
"Oh, hello guys!" Mario greeted. "I was just having breakfast would you like to come in?"  
  
"No thanks Mario." The professor said. "We're just here to ask some questions."  
  
"Questions? About what?" Mario asked, confused.  
  
"About the murder. You were correct about the young victim being Tiny Toad. How did you know?" Mark Shroom asked holding a notebook and pen, ready to write down anything Mario said.  
  
"Well he always used to tell me what he wanted to be when he grew up. I started seeing him everyday after he would come home from school. It's pretty hard to not remember someone you see everyday."  
  
The detective nodded scribbling down some notes on the paper. "And where were you at about 4:30 PM yesterday?"  
  
"I was at Peach's Castle with Luigi." Mario answered getting suspicious of Mark. "You can even ask Luigi."  
  
"Is he here?" Professor Fungi asked.  
  
"He's sleeping." Mario answered.  
  
"Can you wake him up?"  
  
"HEY LUIGI!" Mario yelled. "SOME GUYS HERE WANT TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!"  
  
Luigi was standing in the doorway seconds later. Itt was obvious he had been sleeping, as Mario had said. He was rubbing his eyes tiredly and was still dressed in his pajamas.  
  
"Luigi," Sam Shroom started. "Were you at Princess Peach's Castle yesterday at 4:30 PM yesterday?"  
  
"Yeah." Luigi replied groggily. "We were celebrating that Mario has rescued Peach from Bowser again for about the hundreth time."  
  
"Well, thanks for your help anyway guys." Sam Shroom said as his brother and the professor left.  
***  
Red Ninjakoopa sat down on a rock, nursing his wornds. "Damn Plant!" He cursed, sprinkling some water on a bleeding cut. "How am I ever going to find that murderer now?!"  
  
"How about looking straight in front of you, nimrod!" A dark voice in front of him said.  
  
Red looked up to see a black cloaked figure standing over him brandishing a spear. "So your that murderer!"  
  
The cloaked assassin laughed. "Indeed I am, you probably had help figuring that out. I don't think anyone of your intelect could figure that out on your own."  
  
Enraged, Red took his machete and cut the wooden shaft of the assassin's spear in two.   
  
"Fool!" The assassin yelled at Red, looking down at his now useless weapon. He grabbed one half of the broken spear and drove it into Red's back where the shell was cracked and broken. Red fell face first on the ground. He was about to get up when the assassin's foot was placed on his throat.  
  
Red struggled feebly under the pressure of the assassin's foot. The murderer decided to end it quickly for Red. He applied his full weight onto Red's throat. Seconds later, he stopped moving. The assassin picked up the crown that now lied in the dirt. "This will be a great gift for King Bowser." He then turned and headed to his secret warp pipe to Bowser's castle.  
***  
Bowser carefully inspected the jewel studded crown that the assassin had given him. It was pure gold and had rubies, gems, and other stones covering it.  
  
"This is a very nice gift, indeed." Bowser said to the assassin. "Only a master worker with stones and gold could create this. Not even my slaves could do this. Where did you find this?"  
  
The assassin shrugged. "Some koopa was carrying it around! The idiot broke my spear too."  
  
"Well since you gave me this crown, I'm willing to give you something in return." King Koopa Bowser headed down to a weapon storage room and came up with two items. One was a spear made entirely out of steel. The other was a belt with a dagger, mace and chain, sword, and spiked club tucked into it.  
  
"These are my best weapons." Bowser said. "No need to thank me. Just go out there and murder some more citizens and frame Mario! I didn't give you those weapons for nothing!" 


	4. Caught

Smooth Criminal  
By: The Mystery Squeezit  
Disclaimer: All original characters belong to Nintendo. I own all the fan characters.  
*~*   
Chapter 4: Caught  
  
Back in Forever Forest, Red Ninjakoopa stirred slowly. He had almost been killed by the murderer but he had some how survived having his neck stepped on. Using the broken wooden shaft of the assassin's spear as a cane he slowly limped away.  
  
Mario had finally decided to take the case of the assassin into his own hands. He had gone into Forever Forest to ask his friends at the Boo Mansion if they had heard the news of the assassin. He was careful not to attract much attention in case the assassin was around and he happened to be the next target.  
  
The assassin silently stalked around Forever Forest, using various bushes and trees to duck behind in case anyone was after him. Framing Mario was going to be a whole lot harder than he thought. He then spotted what looked to be an old Koopa or Toad limping over a cane.  
  
"What would ol' Koopa Koot be doing in Forever Forest?" The assassin muttered. "The old fool should know better when there's an assassin out." With that he headed after the limping figure.  
  
Crouching down in some bushes, the assassin waited for his victim to walk close enough to his hiding place. When the figure was close enough, the assassin wrapped his arm around his victim's neck to keep him from crying out. He then expertly slid his dagger in between two of the victim's ribs. The assassin then twisted the now unconscious victim's neck to make sure he would die. When the assassin looked down at the dead victim, what he saw shocked him. It was Red! The assassin thought he had all ready finished him off.  
  
Mario looked in the distance. He saw a cloaked figure standing over a dead body. "Stop there assassin!" Mario shouted.  
  
The assassin turned. Mario had seen him. He turn and ran as fast as he could, forgetting his dagger which was still lodged in Red's ribcage.  
  
Mario was so busy concentrating on catching the murderer he was not looking where he was going. He had tripped over Red's body and landed with a dull THUD!  
  
"Hey Mario." Mario heard the familiar voice of Mark Shroom the detective.  
  
Mario was having trouble getting up and had obviously twisted his ankle in the fall and couldn't get up to tell Mark that he had seen the assassin.  
  
"Hey Mario, Luigi said that you'd be out here and…" The detective stopped dead in his tracks at what he saw. "Oh my Stars what have you done, Mario?!"  
*~*  
Author's Notes: Okay, sorry it took so long to upload this chapter. I'm also sorry on the length of this chapter, next chapter will be longer! Remember to R&R! ^v^ 


	5. Confrontation

Smooth Criminal  
  
By: The Mystery Squeezit  
  
Disclaimer: I think we all know this by now -_-  
  
A/N: …..Wow, that's all I have to say. This little piece of fan fiction hasn't been updated in over a year. Many of my reviewers have probably given up on checking to see if it's been updated. Hmmm, I'll try to update more often after this chapter. Anyways, I made this chapter longer than my usual stuff so enjoy it……or at least try to. ^_^  
  
****  
  
Chapter 5: Confrontation   
  
Mario sighed as he looked out the window of the tiny police car he was currently riding in the back seat of. Mark Shroom was talking nervously into his cell phone to his fellow detectives about his recent discovery. The plumber only half listened to the detectives' conversation, he knew that he was in for the worse. He would have to do his best to convince them that he was not Red Ninjakoopa's murderer.  
  
The police car came to an abrupt stop in front of the Toad Town police station. Mark Shroom slowly got out of the car, and cautiously led Mario inside the enormous building. As he was led inside Mario noticed paramedics rushing inside, pushing a wheeled stretcher, that was supporting Red Ninjakoopa's mangled body.  
  
Minutes later, Mario was sitting down in chair, surrounded by what seemed to be a dozen or so guards, all who were wielding guns. Mark Shroom sat across the room in a desk, ready to question Mario about what had happened. Before he could say anything, a paramedic walked in holding a clipboard.  
  
"It didn't take us long to figure out who the victim was." The doctor started. "He's been on the Mushroom Kingdom's Most Wanted list for years."   
  
Mark Shroom was confused. "Who was it? The Mushroom Kingdom's had a long list of criminals. All of them whom seem to have some type of affiliation with Bowser."  
  
"It was Red Ninjakoopa. The other three Ninjakoopas weren't anywhere near the crime scene, so I'm assuming they don't know anything about their brother's murder."  
  
"Might as well call the other three. Their probably wondering what has happened." Mark Shroom grumbled scribbling down the Ninjakoopa's phone number and handing it to the doctor.  
  
"Thank you." The doctor said quietly. He then turned around and left the room.   
  
Mario who was just sitting there, suddenly stoop up, causing chaos among the guards. "Listen, I know it will be hard to believe me here, but it's the truth. I saw the murderer running away, shortly after he had killed Red. He was covered from head to toe in a black cloak, so I didn't catch a good glimpse of him."  
  
Mark Shroom sighed at Mario's description of the murderer. He had described him as the average stereotypical murderer seen in horror movies. He couldn't remember the last case he had worked on where the criminal had dressed like something seen in the movie "Scream."  
  
"Listen Mario," The detective began. "I'm not going to jump to conclusions and say you did it. I'm just going to tell you the flat out truth. In your current situation, it's not looking so good for you. When the other detectives and I arrived, the only two there were you and Red Ninjakoopa."  
  
Mario stood up, only enraging the guards further, and stepped towards the detective's desk. "Listen Mark, I'm serious. That criminal is a flat out genius. He had his own secret warp pipe or something. I don't know what else he could've used to have gotten away so quickly."  
  
One of the guards, a koopa who had looked like he had been taking some serious steroids, walked up to Mario and attempted to pull him away from Detective Shroom. Mario broke free of the koopa's vice-like grip, and faced his longtime friend once more, trying to prove his innocence.  
  
The koopa guard was now clearly angry, growled to Mario in his deep voice. "Look pal, I know you've never been questioned as a criminal before, but you gotta stay in that chair the whole time." He gestured to wooden chair Mario had been sitting in earlier. "Got it?"  
  
Mario just sighed. He didn't want to get into anymore trouble then he all ready was, so he walked back to the chair and sat down.  
  
***  
  
Back in the morgue area of the police station, Red's brothers had just entered arguing amongst the doctors and nurses who were trying to tell them the bad news.   
  
"Why are we here?" Yellow Ninjakoopa spat at a terrified looking nurse. "We didn't do nothing!"  
  
"Yeah!" Green added. "Is this some kind of a setup to get us in jail?"  
  
"No, this isn't a setup. This is a very serious situation and it involves your brother" The nurse, whom Yellow had yelled at earlier, tried to explain.  
  
"Well what is it, lady?" Yellow practically screamed at her.  
  
The nurse sighed. "Follow me." She said. The nurse led the three brothers into a corridor and headed to the room where Red's body was being inspected.  
  
"Heh, did Red murder some of these people or what?" Black Ninjakoopa joked, looking into the window of one room, eyeing the bodies of victims of earlier murder cases.  
  
The nurse stopped in front of a room, whose number was written on the clipboard she was carrying. "Here we are. Room 826." She gently opened the door, and said to the doctor who was currently operating on Red's body. "Doctor Fungi, these three are here to see their brother Red."  
  
Doctor Fungi looked up. "Well guys," He said to the three confused Ninjakoopas. "I don't know what to tell you. But your brother, he was found murdered this morning in Forever Forest."  
  
"Uh, this is a joke, right?" Green said, obviously not believing a word of the doctor's statement.  
  
"This is no joke, sir." The doctor claimed. "If you want to see for yourself, his body is over there on that stretcher."  
  
The three Ninjakoopas walked over, once they saw their brother's body, they were shocked.  
  
"Who the hell did this?" An infuriated Yellow hissed at the nurse and doctor who were standing near the room's entrance.  
  
The nurse looked down at the records on her clipboard and reported to them, "The detectives have not figured out the actual murderer. But for right now, there is only one suspect and that is: Mario."  
  
"Mario? What drugs are you under the influence of, women? Why would Mario wanna murder our brother." Black Ninjakoopa asked walking away from his brother's body.  
  
"We don't know why Mario would do anything like this. But right now he is our only suspect. He was seen at the scene of the crime. He claims that he saw another possible subject, but our detectives have not found any evidence of his claims." Doctor Fungi concluded.  
  
"Can we talk to Mario? Where is he?" Yellow questioned, wanting nothing more then to beat the living crap out of Mario.  
  
"He's currently in being questioned by Detective Shroom." The nurse answered, calmly. "You can talk to him afterwards."  
  
"Good." Yellow grumbled. "My brothers and I would like a word with him about this." 


End file.
